Who knew Sligo Town was such a cradle for logic and anarchy? If only more usually-pointless TV vox pops were like this. The Economist observed this week that regret is one of the prevailing moods in Ireland these days. Perhaps so, but there’s resignation too. The election will prove momentarily cathartic but the deal struck with the ECB and IMF is unlikely to be reshaped significantly and, hence, the election is being held in a strange, make-believe land in which all agree to pretend it matters hugely despite a widespread suspicion that the game is rigged and has, in fact, already been decided. It’s not quite just for show and decency but it feels as though it might almost be.
In other words, this election should have been held last year and a new government elected to represent the state in its financial negotations with the international authorities. The outgoing government had precious little mandate for doing so; the new government will be tied to the unhappy results of those discussions.
Even more so than usual, then, this election is larded with absurdity. Does the make-up or even existence of the Seanad really matter in these circumstances? It’s hard to see that it does. Nor, I hazard, did last night’s debate do much to instil confidence. This, perhaps, was the key passage:
Well, quite. That’s the problem, isn’t it? And so, tongue in cheek or not and for the first time in the history of the statethe anarchist case for endorsing Fianna Fail makes sense.On the EU-IMF bailout, the Fine Gael leader [Enda Kenny] said (in translation): “This deal, this bad deal, should be changed.” Mr Martin [Finna Fail leader] said the other leaders had to be honest with the people: “Labour and Fine Gael can’t change the deal fundamentally on their own”. Mr Kenny interjected: “We’re not saying that . . . no one is saying that”.
[Thanks to MT for the video of Sligo Anarchism].
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